Greg Murley has been a coach at state track and field meets for a quarter of a century, but this week’s meet promises to be a memorable one for the Aberdeen Central coach.
Murley is stepping down as the boys’ head coach for the Golden Eagles. He is trying to keep things as normal as possible heading into his final state meet.
“I’m just trying to get ready for the state track meet. It seems like a normal year and that’s kind of how I want it to be,” Murley said. “Keep working towards the kids’ goals and things like that, and put a decent team together for the weekend.”
While Murley is trying to keep the attention on his athletes, he was recently recognized at the Eastern South Dakota Conference meet in Watertown.
“It’s uncomfortable to stand there and listen to that,” Murley said.
Instead, he tries to deflect the spotlight onto his athletes and coaching staff.
“Those are nice awards, but they’re kids’ and assistant coaches awards, too. It’s not like I’m in this by myself,” Murley said. “We have a really good staff and we have some really good kids. I’ve been able to coach some really good athletes over the last 25 years here.”
Murley has coached cross country, volleyball, basketball, and track and field during his time in the Aberdeen Public School System.
He guided the Golden Eagles to the 2002 Class AA State Volleyball Championship, and had teams “in contention” in cross country and track and field.
Murley said there was a difference between coaching volleyball, and track and field.
“Most of the time, as an overall sport, I understood the Xs and Os better than my assistants,” Murley said of his volleyball days. “Even though they were really good assistants, they were young and understood the game great. Track, I don’t know more about throwing than my throw coaches do. In track you count more on your coaches to be very competent in what they’re doing, because they’re going to have to get the kids ready.”
While Murley has coached numerous state champion athletes and even some All-Americans, he noted that not all were under his guidance when it came to track and field.
“With track some of those kids I coached, like a Josh Martin, I obviously coached, but like a Sam Rohlfs, and Kyson (Fayant) is a good one, I don’t coach those kids,” Murley said. “I make sure they’re entered in the right events and that’s about it.”
The Mitchell native who went on to compete for Northern State, said his upbringing and the coaches he played under helped to shape who he later became as a coach.
“I don’t know if I was ever that super talented at anything. I had a little bit of God-given gifts, but the coaches I had when I was really young, both in basketball and in cross country, people who demanded things out of you,” Murley said. “It wasn’t just a polite ask. I was in the era of Mitchell being really good in basketball and the reason they were really good is because when you showed up for seventh-grade basketball, they demanded that you worked really hard and that you were there all the time.”
Murley plans to continue to teach at Holgate Middle School, but is not sure what will fill up his time now that he is getting out of coaching.
“I don’t know. I think you do this as a lifestyle more than a profession for sure,” Murley said. “I think my wife will be appreciative of when I say that I can go somewhere instead of well, I’ve got open road in the morning that I need to figure out.”
LEADING THE WAY
There are five athletes who top three open events in the final leaders of the season.
Ella Boekelheide of Northwestern tops the 800, 1,600, and 3,200 in the Class B girls.
Others who lead three opens are Tate Grabow of Hill City in the Class A boys 800, 1,600, and 3,200, and three Class A girls: Bergen Musser of Lennox in the 100, 200 and long jump, and Sioux Falls Christian’s Elliot Maddox in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200, and Halle Braun in the 100-meter hurdles, 300-meter hurdles, and the 400.
There are 13 other athletes who lead two open events including Deuel’s Oliver Fieber in the Class A boys 100 and 200, and Ipswich’s Kyle Hettich in the Class B boys 100 and 200.
BY THE NUMBERS
The Sioux Falls Christian girls and the Sioux Falls Lincoln boys top the final team leaders for the spring.
SFC leads 11 events in the Class A girls, while SFL leads 10 events in the Class AA boys.
Other team leaders include Spearfish in the Class AA girls (five events), Deuel in Class A boys (four events), Philip in the Class B boys (five events), and Bennett County in the Class B girls (six events), with Colman-Egan right behind with five.
AND THE WINNERS ARE
Each year this space attempts to project the eventual state championship teams based solely on the final entries into the state meet. There is no way to tell which athletes will rise to the occasion, false start, drop a baton or get injured.
That said, here are the projected winners and their point totals in each of the six divisions.
CLASS AA BOYS: On paper this appears to be the most lopsided of all of the divisions. Sioux Falls Lincoln is projected to score a whopping 195 points.
While that number may be a bit high, it appears the Patriots are poised to score points in a variety of ways and win half of the 20 events. Brandon Valley is projected to finish second with 97 points.
CLASS AA GIRLS: Things could get interesting here. It appears the depth of Rapid City Stevens will allow the Raiders to score 115 points. That is slightly more than Harrisburg, which is projected to score 101. Spearfish will also likely have a strong meet, finishing just in front of Lincoln for third.
CLASS A BOYS: While Lennox won’t win as many events as some squads, the Orioles are primed to score in a lot of ways and finish with 98 points, enough to win the team title. Sioux Falls Christian, which always seems to be in the mix, is projected to score 77 points.
CLASS A GIRLS: Sioux Falls Christian could win more than half of the 20 events and will be a strong favorite to win the team crown. The Chargers are projected to score 163. Lennox figures to be runner-up and could reach 107 points, but it won’t be enough to keep up with SFC.
CLASS B BOYS: It appears that Philip is favored to win this division. The Scotties are projected to score 94 points, which will be more than enough to outdistance a division filled with balance. Bennett County will lead a solid pack for second with 52 points.
CLASS B GIRLS: Everything points to Bennett County here. The Warriors are projected to score 100 points, which will give them a nice cushion to work with. Ipswich could very well be the runner-up with a projected total of 62 points, followed by Colman-Egan with 54.
